Friday, December 02, 2011

Is 'The Daily Show' sensibility creeping into local TV news?

Nancy Nall spotted this report on Detroit's Fox affiliate filed by a reporter she called a "NewzKlown." I see in both the tone and style here a heavy debt to the arch, smirking, partcipatory yet still fundamentally accurate way in which comedian/reporters on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" cover stories:

A little goes a long way with this sort of thing, of course, and when it's done badly it's excruciating, but I'm not totally aghast. For many stories, ironic beats earnest.

Posted at 08:32:59 AM

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I haven't had a chance to watch the clip yet, being as I am at work and all, but I clicked on Nancy's post to find the name of the "NewzKlown." Heh. I cannot agree with her more, and I haven't even seen one of his reports. I did, however, attend a Q&A in which he was a panel participant, following the screening of the documentary "Page One." The guy was so self-aggrandizing and arrogant that I left before the end of the discussion because I was just so tired of hearing all about him. Without even seeing one of his reports, I'd say to compare them to the reporting done on the Daily Show does a great disservice to Jon Stewart and his writing staff.

Please tell me they don't give Pulitzers for TV journalism. Maybe he's a good writer. Having seen him do nothing but steal focus in a serious discussion about the future of newspapers, I did not come away with a desire to find out what he had written. I came away with a desire to get away from him as soon as I could.

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